introduction

As we move further into electronic the 21^st century, we face several interesting challenges as instructors and students. These include what we intend or our vision for teaching and learning, the roles of instructors and students, an emphasis on learning and reflection, what demonstrates quality experiences, and ways to create technology rich learning environments for different kinds of knowledge. This course will explore structures and processes that engage students in meaningful learning. We will form various learning communities as we work together in small groups, large groups, within and between cohorts for different assignments. We will seek ways to use our technologies to develop rich and engaging learning environments.

The course will begin with all students entering the Gateway to Vision. Beginning with background readings, students will progress through a process of articulating a specific vision of integrated technology-based learning environments. Through continued interactive discussions with each other and the instructor, your vision statement will evolve throughout the course. As a vision statement is developed, students will begin to explore a paradigm of instructional design; these are the Gateways of Literacy, Knowledge, Problem-Solving, Collaboration, Systems of Assessment and Models of Integration. The final project will be a presentation of a plan to engage and support teachers in a school or a district in the process of exploring and becoming proficient in integrating computer technologies into their instruction. This plan will include a carefully articulated vision statement and a model technology integrated learning environment.

and explore the following gateways and campsites to discover designs for different types of learning environments:

Bridge of Design: Designing Learning Environments
Camp for Literacy	Camp for Knowledge
Camp for Problem-Solving	Camp for Community
Camp for Assessment	Camp for Using Information

So What?

Alvin Toffler, a futurist states:

"I can imagine our entire school system shriveling up. It is a $500 billion-dollar enterprise. By everybody's measure, they are inefficient, ineffective and very expensive. When we built that system, it was humanizing and democratic and good. But it's very structure -- it simulated the factory. Now they continue to simulate a factory future, but the factories aren't going to be there. So what is going to happen is that these schools are going to shrink in relevance. ...

The single, most important educational gain in America in the last 15 or 20 years has been the fact that 20, 30 or 40 million Americans have learned how to use a PC. Now isn't it amazing? They didn't go to school to learn that. How did they learn? They learned first from pimply faced kids in Radio Shacks, who sold the first machines and said: 'You push this button over here.' Then they brought the machines home and then they played with them and then they said, 'Gee,' they needed to know more, so they called a guru. Who was a guru? A guru was a neighbor or a co-worker who had bought a machine one week before them. He was now, or she was now, the expert. What happened was, through an informal process of people-to-people learning, an enormous bank of skills was distributed through our society. No school. Schools didn't matter in that process. Virtually none. That says to me, if we understood people-to-people learning, and distributed intelligence, we could transform and accelerate the learning processes in fabulous ways that have nothing to do with schoolrooms and seats."

Alvin Toffler is one of the world's most well-known futurists. He and futurist Heidi Toffler, his wife, were interviewed by phone in March from their home in southern California.

What is the current penetration of computers and internet into American homes? How do you interpret this information?

Many opinions exist today concerning the role of technology in learning environments. Literature is full of "oughts" and "shoulds" about students' needs for the 21^st century. Little, if any foundational research findings exists to guide us. However, many thoughtful leaders are wondering if today's schools are preparing students for the society in which they will live or are we preparing them for a society that no longer exists? Our current schools were developed in an age when our society was moving from an agricultural base to an industrial base. In the late 1800's most Americans worked in some form of agricultural production. By the 1930's, the majority of our country's workers had moved from agriculture to manufacturing. In the 1970's, the workforce had shifted again into service industries. Now, we are told that the majority of our workforce is engaged in working with information storage, retrieval and manipulation. Have our learning environments (schools, classes, curriculum, values, etc) kept our students current with these changing skills and needs of society or are we still teaching those skills that were needed over a hundred years ago but have little meaning now?

Our quest for a vision will use a metaphor. Often as we walk in a dense woods we cannot see the forest for the many trees that surround us and block our view. In the same manner, as educators we may not see the overall picture and guiding structures due the constant daily details that occupy our time. We seldom have opportunities to think about the larger picture of what we are doing and why we are doing it. The integration of technology into schools and curricula is seldom justified or conceptualized in a way that folks form common goals and understandings. As you move around the paths and activities in this forest, what other metaphors are represented? For instance, you may see a circular connection between the definition of technology integration and the vision one articulates. Can you find others?

Thus, we will begin our journey through this rather dense forest by looking at some of these questions and raising many others. Attempt to step out of your role as an educator for a while and examine our society from other perspectives. What changes are really happening in our society? How is our current workforce engaged? In what ways is success measured in our society and what skills are necessary to achieve it. Are the underlying values and skills needed by our workforce the same as those taught in our schools? Is there a difference in the values and skills taught in the "overt" and "covert" curriculum taught in the schools of today compared to those of a hundred years ago?

As we proceed, you will be challenged to determine what is meant by the concept of technology integration in the curriculum. It is a term often used today without agreed upon meaning. How can we recognize when this is taking place and the extent to which it is taking place.

Understanding in-depth the concepts and issues surrounding the meaning of technology integration, as well as the why, we will move toward developing a statement of vision which guides our own individual thinking, planning, designing and implementation of technology in learning environments. This statement will be evolving, growing, and revisited throughout the semester.

While our vision continues to guide our practice, students have several different kinds of information and skills to learn. Different skills and knowledge may require different types of learning environments. Each may use technology tools in different ways. This section of the course will enable you to explore designs of environments for various kinds of learning. In small groups, you will investigate these areas in whatever order or sequence that makes sense to you. From these ideas and models, you will begin to develop examples of well-designed technology based learning environments. They may, of necessity, go beyond what you can or are allowed to do in your current school situation. Each example should reflect the vision you have created.